Cycling: Boardman ends career in style

CHRIS BOARDMAN, his face twisted in pain, ended his professional career amid tears and cheers in the Manchester velodrome yesterday afternoon establishing a new world hour record of 49.441 kilometres. He bettered the 1972 figures set by Belgium Eddy Merckx by just 10 metres, or approximately a single second.

CHRIS BOARDMAN, his face twisted in pain, ended his professional career amid tears and cheers in the Manchester velodrome yesterday afternoon establishing a new world hour record of 49.441 kilometres. He bettered the 1972 figures set by Belgium Eddy Merckx by just 10 metres, or approximately a single second.

Speed King: Chris Boardman races to a new world hour record

It was, in his words, the hardest ride of his life as he fought back from a seemingly lost cause when nearly two seconds behind Merckx's figures with 300 metres to go.

This record has now been replaced and Boardman, always a believer that the rider not the bicycle should break the record, made his point in the most emphatic manner in his last race. However, Merckx said from Belgium that his original figures should still stand and you cannot turn the clock back 27 years.

Boardman, from Hoylake, covered 198 laps of the velodrome which has shaped his career even before he became an overnight celebrity after winning a gold medal in the amateur pursuit race in the Barcelona Olympics. It was the first by a cyclist for 72 years.

Boardman, 32 had no strength left to walk, not even to pull on a pair of shoes after refusing to leave the professional sport the way he had come in, as a champion.

"My wife Sally came to the edge of the track and started shouting at me, and she's never done that before. As usual, she pulled the best out of me, but she almost killed me off, too."

Among the first to welcome him off the track was his career-long French manager, Roger Legeay and Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the Tour de France. An unprecedented tribute to a British rider who has also won the Tour Prologue three times and worn the yellow leader's jersey for six days - a British record.

When thanking the crowd for a "great 10 years", he added: "I will now see you in the bar as I'm glad it's all over."

His last ride started well as he gained over his own schedule, but was well behind that of Merckx. It was known that Merckx had started very fast in October 1972 when he set the record at altitude in Mexico.

After half-an-hour, Boardman passed through 25km, three seconds quicker than Merckx, but thoughts of building on that faded as he started to suffer and ride a more shaky line around the velodrome. He fell behind by three seconds and only the crowd's cheers and a determination inbred into a proud athlete, pulled out a record by just 10 metres.

"When I discussed this record with Reger Legeay in June, he told me that a metre would be good enough, but I'll settle for 10."

Yvonne McGregor, 40, became the first women since Beryl Burton in 1968 to reach the final of the 3,000 metres pursuit.

McGregor, the bronze medallist in Sydney and riding her final world title series, meets the 1997 champion Judith Arndt, from Germany, today in the race for the gold medal. McGregor, who qualified fastest, continued to lead the way by recording 3min 36.145sec while beating Lada Kozlikova of the Czech Republic.

Italian Roberto Chiappa lost the men's sprint bronze medal when he was disqualified for an incident that left the defending champion, Laurent Gane, flat on his back - after their race.

The Frenchman won the deciding race in their best-of-three rides semi-final, much to Chiappa's annoyance. When Gane waved his hand at him, offering to shake hands, the Italian ignored him and then rode across his path, causing Gane to crash.

Chiappa circled the track waving both his arms aloft - booed all the way by the 5,000-strong crowd.